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Thursday, August 25, 2011

On Monday, I loaded all of my beach photos into my Memory Manager (see the post) and started to organize them. That got me thinking about new techniques for my digital beach pages. Here are some of the ideas I came up with. First - Shell Alphabets.

I've included some png files of shells for you to save and use as embellishments in your digital scrapbooking software. I use Storybook Creator PLUS 3.0 for my creations.

Page 2 of my handout shows how to create the Shell Alphabets step by step.

I also like the idea of writing in the sand. I came up with a technique using digital scrapbooking tools to make it look like there's writing in the sand on a page. It's on page 3 of my handout.

I know I'll be using Alpha Shapes and Text boxes with added formatting to make the titles of my beach pages look very sandy and beachy. Page 4 of my handout shows different techniques for getting a sandy title effect for use on a page. Mainly, I use the Glow, Shadow, and 3D effects in my SBC+ software.

As soon as I get started on my Beach Album, I'll share my actual album pages with you.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

In just 3 days we move my son to college. He is my second child, oldest son. He will begin his freshman year at a University about 1.5 hours from our home. His move in date is Saturday. This week we've been assembling his stuff... for my daughter this meant shopping around for the perfect comforter and making sure she had a cute shower caddy. For my son this meant, grabbing stuff from around the house that didn't require shopping and making sure he had a few new pack of socks! The end result is mostly the same. A big pile of "stuff" is in his room, it will fit in our van and he's ready to go and begin this new adventure.

Just a few months ago, I was planning his graduation party and finishing up his high school photo albums. I did get all his albums done, 1.5 of them still need journaling, the digital pages from the end of senior year still need to be sent off to be printed, but they got done. We displayed them all at the graduation party. He enjoyed looking through them. All is good in that department.

When I was finishing up his high school albums, I clicked on Facebook to check something. I noticed a photo of him that someone had posted on FB and I spent a few mins flipping through his FB photos. Many of them had been taken by friends or with his camera and are ones I didn't personally possess.. That gave me an idea!

A FACEBOOK ALBUM! Could I pull it off? Could I make and print one as a cool grad gift that he could take to school - YES. I stopped what I was doing right then and made a plan for a Facebook album. I finished it in just one night.

Here's the gist. Right click on any photo you want from facebook and choose "save picture as." The image probably won't be very large - pixel wise but just ignore that, I was able to use almost everything I saved. Save it to a folder. I used the Microsoft Paint package to save photos that were in other formats (like gif or bmp) to be jpgs and I renamed them.

Import your FB photos into Memory Manager (or your photo organizing and editing software). Fix or crop any photos... careful, these files will be kind of small and you can't do too much to alter them.

Open a new project in SBC+ - I opted for a hardcover 8X8 album.

I kept it simple, FB photos, divided into categories (based on what I found on his FB page), FB icons, Titles, not too much journaling.

I thought this would be a good album for my son to take to school with him so I didn't want too much mushy journaling. Besides, most of these photos had not been taken by me, so I didn't really have a lot to say about them... it was just a picture story of who my son was on Facebook.

For the cover, I went to Facebook, called up my son's page, did a screen save and saved a "picture" of his FB page. I used this photo for the cover of the album.

Facebook Icons - I wanted this album to be totally about my son in the world of Facebook so I searched google images for Facebook Icons... I saved them as png files and re-colored or altered some of them to fit my pages. I used a different Facebook Icon on every double page spread. I've included copies of the icons to use. You can click on them and save them for your own use. PNG files work as embellishments in the Storybook Creator PLUS software package.

Quote Page. My son is really into quotes. Whenever he finds one he likes or has a quote to match his mood, he posts it as his status on Facebook. He even wrote his college essay about his love of quotes. I went back through ALL of his facebook statuses and recorded all of the quotes. I made one entire page in his Facebook album of some of the quotes that I know are his favorites.

Poster Inspiration - While making the quote page in his Facebook Album I also decided to make him a quotes poster - again, I created a Wall Print project in SBC+ and got to work. Here is the result.

Album Back Cover. On the back cover of the album, I wrote a little note about Facebook. Really, facbook hasn't been around very long but it's impact on our society and the way we communicate is HUGE. I wanted to capture that. Who knows what will be the next big method of communication? I wanted the facebook album to have a time capsule kind of feel so when he looks at it years from now, he can remember how much FB was a part of his life during this little snippet of time.

When my daughter went off to college, I made her an album. It was called "My Book About Me." I sent it to her around the 2nd week of college - it was a well-received package to get in her mailbox. She loved showing it off to all the friends she'd made in her new world.

Likewise, when my daughter went to Fiji to go to school for a semester at the University of the South Pacific to study Anthropology, I sent her with two identical soft cover 7X5 albums. One of the albums was to give to her host family - the other was to carry with her to show to the many families who housed her as she traveled around the islands learning about Fijian culture. The book was a HUGE hit. The families were so amazed. She said her host family, extended host family and local neighbors poured over the tiny album over and over and over again - she never knew a 20 page photo album could be so interesting. They were amazed by her American life and family. It was a glimpse into the unknown for them.

Use your digital scrapbooking to send your kids off to college with a little snippet of life back home, they'll be glad you did! Happy Digi Scrapping.

Monday, August 22, 2011

I made a promise that every Monday I would do something with respect to organizing, editing or journaling about my photos using my Memory Manager software.

Today, I got all of the photos from our week at the beach into memory manager. I actually started going through the batch (almost 1000 photos between the 3 of us who take family photos during the ONE week we're there) and deleting the bad ones.

However, a really cool thing happened while I was going through them. The beach photos inspired future blog posts.

1. A lesson on how to make beach themed digital pages (check back soon for this one)
2. Some ideas to share about WHAT cool photo shots you can take on the beach
3. An inspiration for some cool beachy alphabet letters I want to make with my SBC+ software
4. A blog post on my Fly The Coop Crafts blog on the AWESOME batik my little sister made

Who knew all that would come from just putting a few photos in the right place!

Friday, August 19, 2011

This week is the National Creative Memories Showcase Scrapbook Convention in Minneapolis, MN.It’s an annual event attended by about 3000 Creative Memories consultants.This year, Creative Memories has jumped on the social media bandwagon and they are broadcasting this huge event in a play by play format on their facebook event page.Not a Creative Memories consultant?No problem – the facebook event is open to you too! There is also a lot of info on the Creative Memories Home Office FB page too - and lots of photos!

At the convention a LOT of new things are announced, new company programs, new products in their traditional scrapbook line, digital scrapbook line and organizational and home products scrapbook line and a ton of programs that will benefit Creative Memories product users, customers, hosts, and consultants.

I am attending the VIRTUAL Creative Memories event this year.I have been glued to the facebook event page for the past two days and I feel it’s time to offer a summary of all I’ve learned so far.

As a virtual attendee, it’s a little harder to get EVERY detail about the information I’m sharing, so until it comes out in a more permanent form after September 1st, please enjoy this sneak peak into the new world of cM… I will make corrections to anything I don’t have JUST RIGHT as soon as I learn about any mis-steps I’ve made here.

cM (Creative Memories) studied the trends in fashion, furniture and design to shape this product line.Their research paid off!They blended this product line with the same look as what will show up in the photos in your life.The décor is modern with a touch of shimmer.There is a glossy varnish element too.This design also includes some foil accents.

Reflections offers both Traditional and Digital products lines.In the traditional line, an entire Quick set of products have been developed (Reflections PicFolios).The new PicFolios are light blue with wonderful cover styling designs and photo windows.

Also in traditional look for new shimmer card stock in 2 colors.

Reflections definitely captures your modern sensibilities.

Reflections also offers a new décor to the outside of the organizing phenomenon, the powersort box.AND… we can’t leave out the two new Everyday Displays.The new full sized Everyday Displays are still large magnetic boards with a frame effect and they will be offered in black and white and include magnets each. They can be hung horizontal or vertical and don’t have a clothespin bar like the previous version.The design is more sleek and modern.

NEW Traditional Album Coversets with Custom Covers – Check these out…there are 3 ways to create the new covers for these albums…every traditional scrapbooker will be able to create one and digital scrapbookers can design covers with their digital scrapbook software – just another way to make all scrapbooking more “hybrid.” Check out this YOU TUBE video on CUSTOM COVERS to see more.

Next we have 3 new SIMPLY SAID albums.The three new ones feature the themes: friends, teacher and Hope.These albums offer super fast and short ways to complete a project and these new themes will make GREAT gift products as well!

There are several new products in the PicFolio line which will be greatly loved! NOW most albums in the PicFolio line are expandable, and some feature photo windows on cover, landscape sizes, new pocket pages, and recipe themes, look for new 11X14, 13X9, 4X6s etc.

Think Pink is an entire line to accompany breast cancer causes.The line includes a 12X12 traditional album with the word Believe on the front.There are also paper, stickers and a brand new LOOP RIBBON maker.Consider using the new ribbon shape maker with paper colors other than pink to represent the colors of additional causes.

NEW in Digital Scrapbooking you will find:an upgrade to SBC+ to 4.0.There will be a full blown 4.0 version ($64.95) and an upgrade version.No news yet on the features and details of what the new software will add to your digital scrapbooking, but it’s bound to be awesome, after all it’s Creative Memories!Keep in mind that both versions include a bunch of design packages.The full blown version has $75 of digital art and the upgrade has $60.Upgrade version will cost $24.95 and will debut sometime this fall.New design items in the upgrade version are called Serene and Just Fun – both versions will include calendar 2012 items.

Hardcover storybooks will now come with a limited lifetime warranty, you can also upgrade to layflat pages in hardcover storybooks.Keep in mind that in the month of Sept 2011, hardcover storybooks will be sold at 20% off including 20% discount on any extra pages you add to your hardcover album.AND another thing to celebrate… No more ugly barcode printed on the back cover of the book.

Many of these products will be available starting Sept 1.Some will begin in October and November 2011.

Speaking of November.Check out the NEW TAPERUNNER VIDEO onYouTube.A new tape dispenser system will debut in November.The new tape has a drop in refill that does not require you to THREAD the tape into your dispenser when you replace it.

Gratitude features a warm and homey array of colors in browns and peaches.Her gratitude products will be available in both Traditional and Digital Scrapbook varieties.Also available in Gratitude is a fabulous new rich Brown PicFolio Milestones album with cross hatch design and a photo window on the cover.

But what I LOVE the best is the new 8X8 Gratitude Recipe Kit.The album is an 8X8 PicFolio with a whole new look and the accompanying design products are as cute as ever.I see holiday gifts by the dozen with this new set!

Also in the Gratitude line is a new MINI Everyday Display – it’s mainly brown with some black elements and a bit more traditional styling to its molding frame.It still has a clothesline bar like it’s predecessor.

I know you can’t imagine that there’s more…but there IS…

I haven’t even begun to tell you about all of the new PROGRAMS cM is rolling out.First up is the new Customer Rewards program.This program will replace the old Memory Keepers Club.Customers will JOIN the Rewards Club by paying an annual fee.The fee is $39 annually but is being offered at between $20 - $29 per year (will clarify the exact amount when I get written notification of the program) if you are one of the first to join and you take advantage of this GREAT deal in September 2011…

As soon as you enroll you get a $10 reward in club credit applied to your first order!

Then, you receive a 15% club credit on your purchase…

And it doesn’t stop there – you also get EXCLUSIVE products ONLY for you!!!( I saw the first and it’s an entire Halloween Product Bundle). ONLY Rewards Club members get this exclusive product so join up right away!

Consultants – you will get a commission when you SELL the rewards club.It’s like a product you sell and a customer loyalty program all rolled in to one… a win win situation for everyone!

Think we’re done?NOPE… There’s a NEW HOSTESS reward program.There are a lot of details but just know that no matter what you host, a class, demo, workshop, open house, whatever… you will be rewarded and even BETTER than in the past… more details will be posted later, I don’t want to mix up any info.

A couple of EXTRA things.Creative Memories knows that product to help you scrapbook and share products are important to all scrapbookers and so this year, they featured a fabulous new product at their EXPO.Check out the FLIP PAL- it’s a moblie scanner.Here is a link to it on AMAZON MOBILE SCANNER and here is a YOUTUBE MOBILE scanner video you can check out.It’s pretty cool – especially how it can scan right through page protectors AND stitch BIG pages together.

And last but not least, if you LOVE the Pixels2Pages digital training website, hear this.The Pixies will be giving up their jobs as consultants and will be taking on the role of FULL TIME digital training.P2P will officially be part of Creative Memories.Their website (check it out SOON because it will close down the free version and open an new version on Oct 1) will be a new subscription service - $49 for 3 months of training, videos, blue prints, freebies and MORE.Same fabulous pixies – new service.AND.. if you are cmc, you can SELL the P2P subscription – again, more details forthcoming.

Guess what!!! As a Creative Memories consultant, I get to purchase all of these awesome new products at a 30% discount, even off of the sale prices!!! Become a consultant for just $50 in the US and you can start saving too! Visit THIS LINK for more info about becoming a consutant.

About Me

I'm Sher. Thanks for visiting. I'm a certified personal photo organizer and mother of four. I have more hobbies than I can keep up with, but I still try! I author a few blogs which I occasionally remember to update. I love to crochet, hike, camp, take photographs, sew, quilt and garden. I do my best to run and knit but I'm not so good at either and I'd love to learn yoga. I'm kind of crazy about the quality of my food - I won't eat anything with GMOs, I prefer real food made with real organic ingredients and I prefer to shop local.